Total Blamed for Zambia Fuel Crisis, Smelter Closure 2005-10-05 12:37 (New York)
By Anthony Mukwita and Antony Sguazzin
Oct. 5 (Bloomberg) -- Total SA, Europe's biggest oil
refinery, is responsible for a fuel shortage that has shut a
copper smelter in Zambia, Africa's largest producer of the metal,
Zambia's government said.
Total manages Indeni Petroleum Refinery, the nation's sole
oil refinery, after buying a 50 percent stake in November 2001
from a unit of Italy's Eni SpA for an undisclosed price. The rest
of the refinery is owned by the Zambian government.
``We are extremely unhappy with Total, who manage Indeni and
are supposed to manage the company,'' Zambian Commerce and
Industry Minister Dipak Patel told journalists in Lusaka, the
southern African country's capital, today. ``We think there is a
need to revisit our relationship with them.''
Copper miner Glencore International AG has shut its smelter
amid the fuel shortage. Prices for copper, used to make wiring
and power cables, rose to a record for a second straight day in
London today, with metal for three-month delivery increasing to
$3,890 a metric ton.
Indeni stopped production three weeks ago for ``technical
problems,'' Charles-Edouard Anfray, a spokesman for Total, said
in a phone interview from Paris. He declined to comment further.
The refinery at Ndola, 350 kilometers (218 miles) north of
Lusaka, has the capacity to process 20,000 barrels of oil a day.
The Zambian government has scrapped a 15 percent duty on oil
products in order to boost fuel imports, said Vernon Mwaanga, the
country's information minister. The state-owned Times of Zambia
earlier reported that the duty was 5 percent. The measure will
cost Zambia $2.2 million a month, Mwaanga said.
Prioritized
Copper mines, farms and health-care services will be
prioritized for fuel deliveries, Mwaanga said at a press
conference today in Lusaka.
``The copper mining industry is our economic backbone,''
said Mwaanga. ``We have to ensure that they get the fuel as soon
as it arrives.''
Vedanta Resources Plc has stocks of fuel to keep its plants
in Zambia open, according to Faeth Birch, a spokeswoman for the
company in London.
Patel couldn't give a date for the arrival of fuel imports.
``I also do not know when we will have fuel,'' he said. ``I
cannot say it will be Tuesday or Friday because that would be
causing confusion in the minds of people.''
--With reporting by Tom Cahill in Paris and Simon Casey in
London. Editors: Carrigan, Griffiths, Carrigan. |
